Over the past decade, the use of wireless communications devices, such as mobile telephones and personal digital assistants, has increased dramatically. This increased use has also led to an increase in the capabilities of these communications devices. In particular, wireless subscribers are increasingly using their wireless communications devices to access and download various types of media content, such as ringtones, music, video, graphics, photos, etc. Access to vendors that provide media content is provided by wireless network operators, who have previously negotiated service level agreements with each vendor. A third party clearinghouse entity is often used by media content owners to control access to and bill for the use of media content.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary mobile networking environment 100, which includes a ringtone content provider 102, a third party clearinghouse entity 104, a first general packet radio service (GPRS) network 166 which is owned by network operator X, a second global system for mobile communications (GSM) or Interim Standard 41 (IS-41) cellular network 108 which is owned by network operator Y, and a third Internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem (IMS) network 110 which is owned by network operator Z. Mobile subscribers 112, 114, and 116 are respectively associated with networks 106, 108 and 110.
A typical service agreement may allocate 60% of revenue from a ringtone sale transaction to ringtone content provider 102, 30% of revenue from the transaction to network operator Y, and 10% of revenue from the transaction to the clearinghouse 104. In the example presented in FIG. 1, mobile subscriber 114 requests and receives downloadable ringtone content 118 from content provider 102. Content provider 102 reports the content download to the clearinghouse 104. Clearinghouse 104 subsequently bills mobile subscriber 114 $1.00 for the downloaded ringtone. Clearinghouse 104 in turn pays $0.60 to the ringtone content provider 102, $0.30 to network operator Y, and retains $0.10 as an administration fee.
One problem with the current media content delivery in wireless communications networks involves the fact that while network operator Y may be entitled to a 30% commission by a previously negotiated service agreement, there is no mechanism available to operator Y to independently monitor and verify content download transactions that involve the operator's network. Within the context of current content delivery solutions, a network operator is completely reliant on the good faith dealings of the content provider and the content delivery clearinghouse regarding content delivery transactions and the associated revenue.
Another problem associated with delivery of media content in wireless communications networks involves an operator's inability to verify the success or failure of an attempted media content download transaction. For instance, mobile subscriber 114 may contact a customer service center associated with network operator Y and claim that a ringtone download was purchased but never received. Currently, network operator Y has no way to verify whether or not the purchased ringtone content was successfully delivered to mobile subscriber 114. This inability leaves a network operator vulnerable to fraud and may result in a less than ideal quality of service within the network.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved methods, systems, and computer program products for monitoring and auditing the delivery of media content in a wireless communications network.